François de Beauharnais (1714–1800)
French nobleman, soldier, politician, colonial governor and admiral

François de Beauharnais, Marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais (16 January 1714, La Rochelle – 18 June 1800, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) was a prominent French nobleman, whose life spanned military, political and colonial spheres.
He was seigneur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve, baron de Beauville, 1st marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais, chef d'escadre des armées royales, and governor of the French colony of Martinique. He was the son of Claude de Beauharnais, sieur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve (1674-1738), and Renée Hardouineau de Landanière (1696-1766).
In 1752, he acquired the château of La Ferté-Avrain. In recognition of his service to the crown, King Louis XV elevated his estate to a marquisate, officially naming him Marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais in July 1764.
Marriages and issue
On 13 September 1751, at Blois, François de Beauharnais married Marie Anne Henriette Françoise Pyvart de Chastullé (17 March 1722 – 5 October 1766). They had three children:
François de Beauharnais (1752–1753)
François de Beauharnais (VI) (1756–1846), seigneur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve, baron de Beauville, 3rd comte des Roches-Baritaud, 2nd marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais
Alexandre de Beauharnais (1760–1794).
On Henriette's death, François de Beauharnais in 1796 married Marie Euphémie Désirée Tascher de la Pagerie (1739–1803), an aunt of Josephine de Beauharnais.
Life
In 1751, he was made chef d'escadre des vaisseaux du roi, then governor of Martinique. On 20 April 1752, he acquired the château de La Ferté-Avrain, which had recently been rebuilt.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “François de Beauharnais (1714–1800)” as french nobleman, soldier, politician, colonial governor and admiral. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3086122. VIAF identifies the subject as 95410811. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1714, 1800, 1674 and 1738.
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This entry incorporates text from “François de Beauharnais (1714–1800)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.